We're a slightly more open bunch than normal, so I thought people might be willing to share their trades. I know we all have different goals/styles, so I'm hoping for a thread where we can discuss investments without judgment.
Example (not real):
Bought SPY @ 129 as a short-term trade because I think the debt-ceiling is an overplayed non-issue. Exposure is 5% of my portfolio.
Maybe nobody will be interested in this, or maybe nobody trades often enough for it to be useful. However, I think it could be very helpful to identify trends, styles, and potential investments for further research.
Of course, the entire thread would carry the caveat that this is not investment advice, for discussion purposes only, and that everyone should do their own research. I would not expect anyone to blindly mimic trades.

I like this idea. I went to all cash a week or 2 ago. I've been thinking of doing a short term index play like the one you are doing, but so far I've been surprised by the gradual nature of the price movements and haven't developed a firm conviction to trade on yet.

I am currently 10% in cash. I too was thinking about buying an index fund for short term if the market goes down another few percentage points, then sell back out to cash once it goes up again (which I think it will).

Any ideas on specific stocks that are underpriced now due to the debt-ceiling jitters?

@sree - Mortgage REITs took a panic hit today and they're still low. They triggered my stop losses (and what I'm guessing to be a lot of other people's stop losses one after another all the way down) and then recovered within the hour. ARGH! I managed to get them back near the selling price losing about 20 bucks in the process. This will be my first wash sale, yay (not!). So much for automatic stop losses. I figure in the future I'll use manual stop losses.

I bought TEF a few months ago as well, as I started shifting my taxable savings into dividends in preparation towards next springs 'retirement'. VKQ, INTC too. Most other funds.
Scariest thing about TEF is market perceptions w/r to europe, and the low institutional investment ratio.
All my "cash" is in IRA.
My good/bad is actually google which I finally bought some of (~1%) within the year. It promptly lost nearly 20% but is back net positive. No real fiscal justification except that this was my first venture into individual equities, and I (still) think they have such a solid hold over such a significant slice of the pie that they should fare well in the long run. (and P/E < 20 again at the time).

@jacob - yeah, NLY tripped my alarms, too. I went ahead and sold it just after the first morning bounce peaked. Not sure what conditions will cause me to repurchase.
I could be wrong, but I think the leveraged financial firms (BDCs, mREITs, & banks) will all be ratcheting downwards for the next couple of months. There's just too much fear for them not to keep sliding.
***

On the other hand, I think some of the traditional REITs are heading into bargain territory: OHI and GTY. GTY is riskier since there are tenant difficulties, but the yield is, IMHO, adequate for the risk.

@chilly - I keep looking at TEF, but find myself not pulling the trigger. They're not just in Spain/Portugal... I think they're in Brazil, too? They've been raising the dividend faster than earnings & revenue, so I'm not sure the dividend growth is sustainable for too much longer. And I'm not yet at a point where I want a stock only paying dividends semi-annually.
VKQ is looking a bit attractive again this week. Munis are not being hit particularly hard despite the Federal government uncertainties and VKQ is trading below NAV again even though NAV remains flat.

Over the last week or two I moved pretty much all of my 401k out of a 100% stock fund mix and into PRPFX (The Permanent Portfolio mutual fund). I was hoping to create a P.P. myself with my 401k money through a mutual fund window option we have. The commonly used ETFs (VTI, TLT, SHY, and IAU) are not available through my 401k - only mutual funds. So I will have to investigate more. For now I think I will let my money sit in PRPFX. It is substantially less risky than the 100% equity elections I had before, but it might perform just as well or better.

Is PRPFX a good alternative to cash? The expense ratio is a bit scary. Right now I only have cash available in untaxable accounts, so I'd like to avoid dividends. Nevertheless, I'm happy with my last trade of intc a while ago.

@Chilly/DividendGuy,
As you bought TEF, would one of you happen to have an opinion about the Dutch telco KPN.AS? I've got a position in them for the high dividend yield, but I'm constantly worried about their low solvency (~15-16%) and slowly declining revenues. They're planning to increase the dividend in 2012 and 2013 though next to a share buyback program. Cash flow is still adequate for the dividend payout. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I went with a position in NYB. It's been on my watch list since the beginning of the year. It dropped a bit after it's Q2 earnings came in lower. Then the market as a whole dropped all through the week. Always great to lose money right after a purchase eh? I'm ok with the company and it's a good way to test my psychological response to a drop in market value. I'm also looking at AFL and waiting to see what HGIC reports on their Q2 earnings next week.
Speaking of psychologcial responses here is a question for you. I know a lot of you are natural savers. I've mentioned in a few posts that I'm not. To the savers how much does it "hurt" to see a drop in the price of your holdings? I've only started my ERE fund in Dec of last year so I'm still learning, but I have a few holdings that have dropped. For me I don't see it as a loss till I sell and surprisingly it's not bothering me to see a drop in price. Now if I see a drop in dividend I will probably be singing a different tune...

@dragoncar - In short I would say no. Each of the investments within it have risk and theoretically the fund could have a big drop in value.
That said, I have been had some thoughts of putting money that I'm saving up for a house (currently in a M.M.) into PRPFX, because I consider it unlikely that it would have a big drop.

Stop loss for NLY triggered for me as well. I was too busy Friday to repurchase so double uggh for me.
After this, I'm pretty much done with trailing stop losses (was leaning this ways anyways). I'm primarily invested in dividend stocks with a long-record of stability--so a stop loss doesn't make a lot of sense. The only time I'll probably use one is if I have a good run up with a non-dividend stock and I want to preserve my gains.

Out of curiosity, is there any recommended sites for tracking manual stop losses, etc? The company I invest with doesn't have too many features. I've been looking for something to log trades, names and target prices to keep an eye on, and so forth. Google Finance doesn't really have any features beyond a watchlist.
As for recent trades, I got a bit more into blue chip names (ABT, PEP) as I think they'll recover once (if?) the debt ceiling crisis passes. I also sold a short term trade on QQQ as it's not a position that's very rewarding from an income stream perspective. Also loaded up on 50 more shares of EHI, which seems to cycle. I can usually buy at 12.85 or so, it will cycle up to 13.40, and then return. Been doing that for a few months.

I just loaded up on WM after their earnings miss. Bought at 33, now it is at 31.50 or so. Might buy more. I bought once the dividend hit the 4% mark. I love their business and I know that even before the earnings miss they have been working to automate processes to save expenses operationally.
I wanted to add to my position in EXC, however it has been moving up, so I will stand pat for now.
Also, I noticed EMR has been going down. Might look into that one at some point and try to figure out if it is a good value or not.

@OurLifeInc.
I've looked at WM sparsely. The yield is intriguing, but I'm wondering about their debt and their declining revenues/earnings. Seems to be a value play, as the business of garbage isn't going anywhere.
I generally like to see improving revenues and earnings, or flat at the very least. The declines are troublesome.

Yeah, currently earnings are depressed...but I think that is a function of manufacturing being depressed. WM, historically, has had a pretty large industrial client base, which in the last few years, hasn't been as strong. So, in my opinion, that will eventually be back to some extent. But the two segments of theirs that really intrigue me are recycling and landfills.
Recycling, I think, will be huge in the future as we must reuse more and more of our stuff as raw materials just will not be available. That will bode well for WM.
Landfills are the really attractive part of WMs business. That is because very few landfills are being built, so as time moves forward, WM will (should?) have pricing power, increasing revenues without any additional (in theory) costs.
With the 4% yield, I thought it was a good time for me to buy.

@OurLifeInc.
Good points. I appreciate your insight. Always good to know what another investor thinks.
I agree with you on the landfill comment. Especially as smaller landfills lose their usable space. I think that will definitely help their pricing power.
I may look into it, especially after the recent sell-off. Thanks!